[ORP] The Village Proper

[Sabin Duvert]

Whether or not the comment was meant as a joke, Sabin snorted with a small amount of amusement. "Yeah. I will see to that." HE gave her a wave as he sauntered out of the cafeteria.  

[Antoinette Devereux]

Antony finished her food after he left, and then made her way back to her duplex, making sure to take Billy his sushi on the way. It had been a long day.  

[Anjali Frangipani]

NEW RP

Anjali strode out of her duplex with purpose, her hair-tentacles fanning out around her as they stretched in the fresh air. The post-storm air was nice and damp and pleasant, perfect for a happy sundew.

Now... where to begin?

Anjali slowly lost steam and stopped, finally, biting her lip. She had some intention of looking for clues of some sort, but she realized she had absolutely no idea of where to look. Where had Aubrey been injured? If they thought an islander had done it, it must not have been in the labs. And why on EARTH didn't they put the person to sleep? They could do that, right? Or use their cameras?

Clearly they weren't as omnipotent as they thought. And while the thought might otherwise have been heartening, Anjali only found it disturbing at the moment. If the massive surveillance hadn't been able to find anything, how were THEY supposed to?

Well. She had an idea, but it all hinged on where Aubrey was attacked, and if she couldn't find that....

Anjali pivoted on one foot, looking around for someone who might be able to help, aware that a few bugs were starting to show up to be her tentacles' lunch.  

[Infinite Improbability]

The previous day when Zach had returned to his duplex for a shower, he'd found a couple tattered pieces of his shirt still clinging to him even after he'd used them to wipe most of the blood off his hands. He'd peeled it off and left it on his dresser for a while where it festered pointedly like a pair of judgemental eyes. For all intents and purposes he was cleaned of the disturbing amount of blood he'd been covered in, but on some level he still felt dirty. The bit of cloth didn't help. He'd have to get rid of it. Bury it somewhere, perhaps, in the thicker parts of the jungle. If anyone else like Chert were looking around for some kind of psychopath killer, he didn't want to be suspect to it.

Clutching the piece of now brownish-red cloth in his right hand, he skittered down the duplex steps and out into an open space of the village. As soon as he saw the pink-tentacled woman standing nearby attracting flies, he jumped, wide eyed in the realization that he was holding the cloth in plain sight.  

[Anjali Frangipani]

Anjali blinked at the sight of the... wow. She squinted at the man. What on earth had horns like that and red... scales... and a tail...? And wow, those were big teeth... with all the other odd details to take in, she didn't even notice the cloth.

She realized she was staring, and sighed. "My apologies for my rudeness, sir. My name is Anjali," she offered, automatically holding out one hand, then pulling back a bit. "If you don't want to shake, I won't count it as rude. It is a bit sticky," she said, sheepishly.  

[Infinite Improbability]

Just his luck, he supposed bitterly as he sized the woman up with his yellow orbs of eyes. She was disturbingly green, he noticed first. Where she was not green she tended to have pink tentacle-like... things. His imagination was simply terrified of making any guesses about what she was. He'd never heard of any animal close to what she appeared to be becoming. Perhaps she had a DNA combination as well?

The constant examinations by the eyes of other unfortunate islanders had rendered him somewhat less sensitive to the confused gazes of others. However, he had little idea the full extent of his changes - he'd done his best to keep from looking, deliberately getting his mirror fogged up during his shower. He had slung an off-white towel around himself (a shirt was far too impractical for his back) and long pants covered the plated red scales on his legs.

Nervousness seeped into his voice like a torrent of water, moving his words out of his mouth almost as quickly as he managed to think them up. "Oh, oh it's not a problem at all! I'm getting used to it. Er, I should say hi. Name's Zachary. Pleased to meet you- terribly sorry if I don't shake, I've been feeling a little... hygenic... lately." His mind raced fitfully as he slowly pulled his right hand down and behind his back to hide the cloth. Had she noticed? For his sake, he hoped she hadn't. Still, he had questions that Chert failed to answer with his scathing and short remarks. "You wouldn't happen to, um, know what's been going on lately, would you?"  

[Anjali Frangipani]

"No offense taken," Anjali said, kindly, noticing how nervous the man was... she wasn't sure if that was suspicious, or not, but she had a feeling that going on the offensive was pretty much a bad idea no matter what. "And no - I merely heard the announcement. I had some vague idea of searching for clues, as I certainly don't want us all to suffer for the deeds of one or a few, but..." She shrugged, helplessly. "I don't know where to begin."

Anjali paused then, thoughtfully. "With that lovely nose of yours... do you have a good sense of smell, Zachary? If there's one thing we have that the doctors don't, it's our special abilities, and that might help us solve this whole thing."  

[Infinite Improbability]

"The... announcement? Oh. Oh!" He snappe the bulky fingers of his left hand in a somewhat awkward way, keeping the right hand concealed behind the draped towel. "Someone told me about that. I was a little preoccupied when it happened... clues, though? You'd think with all the surveillance here they'd have seen something... and if not, Aubrey should have."

That was, barring the possibility that the talk of cameras and microphones was a bluff.

"Huh... I didn't know we got any special abilities," he admitted. "At least, I haven't... My sense of smell is as human as ever. What about you, though? You're, er... what are you becoming?"  

[Anjali Frangipani]

"Oh..." Anjali looked a little disappointed for just a second, then smiled. "Well, such as... have you met Ambrose, the wolf-man? He has developed a sense of smell and hearing to match that of a real wolf. To be honest, I'm looking for the site of the attack..."

And, well, that led into his other question, didn't it? "My serum is that of drosera, the plant family known commonly as the sundew. And, well, I've found that, to put it shortly, I can 'hear' what plants have to 'say', and as I change I'm working on 'talking' back to them. I'm hoping if I find the site of the attack and there are plants around, I can see if I can get any impressions or... er... I guess the best word would be thoughts, though it's not quite the same with plants. Some kind of clue, perhaps."  

[Infinite Improbability]

"Really? Odd." He still fet a bit uneasy, but intrigued. This was a side of the transformations he had not heard about. He'd been disgusted with himself enough after making small considerations here and there that perhaps his transformation was not as horrible as he first imagined it. It was rather like getting a shot. A shot that changed you into an animal... however, each time he so much as considered the positive aspects he chided himself severely. He was a prisoner against his will! It was his sacred duty to rebel until he managed to return to civilization. But down to business. He could find some way to shrug off Anjali for long enough to dispose of the cloth. "Clues... clues... I don't think I'm any use for this. Do you... remember the night when the storm was coming?" Please, please let him not be the only one with a lot of missing time.

"How... they can turn people into plants?" he gaped. Animals had been bizarre enough, but this? This was absurd. The laws of science were evidently on a long vacation and didn't plan to return any time soon. Well, he'd experienced firsthand twice such madness, so it wasn't his place to call her serum and ability the same. "So when you say they 'talk' to you... you can't mean literally, can you? Like in words?"

He shifted on his long-toed feet as though impatient. "Sorry, I can't think of a place to start looking..."
 

[Anjali Frangipani]

"I don't precisely know how they manage it, either," Anjali said, with a wry grin. "And I used to be a botanist. But it's obvious that it's working... and no, they don't speak in words. It's not hearing with ears, either... it's something else, that gets stronger with every change. But they definitely communicate."

"And... the night of the storm?" She frowned slightly. "I was in my duplex all day, since the rain was coming and the plants were getting... hm... excited. The jungle song, you can't imagine it - if you're not ready and paying attention, it's easy to get lost in and forget," she added, almost wistfully. "I didn't want to risk getting stuck in the song and the storm... but I do remember the lights coming on, and then something that hurt a lot at the base of my neck before I was apparently knocked unconcious... and I woke up in my duplex, as I had been before." She shrugged. "Not terribly interesting, but there you have it. And you?" Anjali asked, curiously.  

[Infinite Improbability]

"That must come in handy..." It was difficult to imagine, as he continued to see it more along the lines of spoken language. "Too bad you can't just directly... 'ask' them yet, I think?"

"So you woke up in your duplex? Weird... All I can really remember from that night is the same weird pain in my neck as you - I think..." He chuckled nervously. Concentration crossed his features for a moment, trying to delve for memories he couldn't seem to grasp. "I... I remember that... and then.... er, not much between there, a few things I can barely recall... and the next thing I knew I woke up in a cave, even more of a 'lizard' than before."

He shrugged, evidently not knowing what to make of it. For the sake of his innocence he'd ommitted the ever-so-subtle detail that he had also found himself covered in blood. It couldn't be that dire if the furry brown guy had also. Strange, perhaps a bit morbid, but as long as he wasn't the only one... Just the thought made him want to throw himself back into the shower.

"So I guess if that weird neck thing happened to both of us, and even a guy I came across yesterday... maybe it happened to even more of us? That's a start for figuring out what happened to us islanders, at least."
 

[Anjali Frangipani]

"You woke up in a cave... without having gone to sleep there?" Anjali sighed. "Before you came, there was an incident in which all of us were kicked out of our duplexes and set in various places - I was given my second injection and literally planted in the ground... what you describe nearly reminds me of that, except that the duplexes and facilities remain open." She frowned, though. Too close for comfort. "I wonder why they'd do that to some and not others? Maybe for transformations only?"  

[Infinite Improbability]

"Ugh... if that's what they wanted with us, it's the sickest practical joke I've ever heard of," he frowned. "Disgusting that they'd do that to you. This whole island has no ethics at all..." Ah, his confidence in opposing the labs had returned, in full force. No longer were there grey shades to things, but a smooth black.

"You're probably right... I was a geologist, thought I got hired here for some cave exploration among other things... knowing what I know, I'd have been an idiot to go that far into a cave with some kind of light. I... already learned that the hard way... I woke up in the dark, sort of." He was still puzzled by why he could see in that cave when there had been almost no light at all. His eyes narrowed a moment as he made a brief connection in his mind. Despite whatever was going on... he was starting to have suspicions of his own.

"But all this doesn't make Aubrey's attacker any more obvious," he said quickly, the cloth still gripped in his hand. He had to get rid of it before things got any weirder. And, of course, telling a few half-truths never hurt anyone. "If it helps... I did see something pretty weird though when I was finding my way back here... a big guy, lots of brown fur. He had blood all over him, but he looked surprised by it."
 

[Anjali Frangipani]

"I really am not sure," Anjali said, with a sigh. "For my last recent injection, I was asked to come into the labs and given it with fair warning and good care. It was... well, as pleasant as I suppose it could be, under the circumstances. Aubrey facilitated that," she added, frowning slightly. She had a feeling the other labtechs wouldn't care so much.

"Hmm... maybe that was Ambrose? Maybe he is back. I should go and talk to him," Anjali mused, then nodded decisively. "I can't imagine him doing anything like that, but... still." If nothing else, the wolfman had a level head on his shoulders. "Nice meeting you, Zachary..." She smiled, then turned and headed with purpose towards Duplex #1.